Category: Science & Technology

ISRO gets patent for Made in India ‘moon soil’ : May 2020

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has registered a patent for its method of manufacturing highland lunar soil stimulant or simply ‘ lunar / moon soil.

The patent was granted by the Indian Patent Office on May 18th for an invention as to the method of manufacturing highland lunar soil stimulant.

Indian-American Siddhartha Mukherjee Wins Pulitzer for non-fiction Book

Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee – Physician, Oncologist, Scientist and Writer.

Awarded Pulitzer Prize for his book, non-fiction category – ‘ The Emperor of All Maladies : A Biography of Cancer’ in 2011

Work:

  • Assistant Professor , Department of Medicine, Division of Haematology/Oncology, Columbia University Medical Center

Education:

  • B.S – Biology, Stanford University
  • D.Phil – Thesis ‘The processing and presentation of viral antigens’
  • M.D – Harvard Medical School
  • – Fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Harvard Medical School)
  • Ph.D – Honorary Doctorate degree – Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland
  • Ph.D – Honorary Doctorate degree – University of Southern California

Awards:

  • Padma Shri (2014) , President of India

Books:

  • The Emperor of All Maladies : A Biography of Cancer (2010) – Pulitzer Prize Winner (2011) and several other awards for the book
  • The Law of Medicine : Field Notes from an uncertain science (2015)
  • The Gene : An intimate history ( (2016)

Indian-American Ami Bhat among Top-10 ‘2020 Emerging Leaders in Health & Medicine’ – May 2020

Dr. Ami S Bhatt is one amongst the ‘2020 Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Scholars’ – announced by ‘The National Academy of Medicine’ (NAM).

Presently:

  • Assistant Professor of Medicine and Genetics, Stanford University
  • Director of Global Oncology Gentre for Innovation in Global Health, Stanford University

Education:

  • M.D.
  • Ph.D – Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of California, San Francisco

Award:

  • Finburg Award for Excellence in Teaching

NGO:

  • She is Co-Founder & Co-President along with Franklin Huang for non-profit organisation ‘Global Oncology’ www.globaonc.org.

88 Indian nurses reach Dubai to help UAE battle COVID-19 : May 2020

First batch of 88 ICU (intensive care unit) trained nurses, from Kolhapur, Karnataka and Kerala departed from Kochi via Bangalore

Dubai: The first batch of 88 ICU (intensive care unit) nurses from India arrived at Dubai Airport Terminal Two on Saturday night to help the UAE in its battle against coronavirus.

Their arrival, at Dubai Airport Terminal Two was facilitated in a tie-up with Aster DM Healthcare group, with the support from the Indian Consulate and the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Indian-American V. Vijay ‘Warrior Surgeon/Pilot’ Flying High With Securing PPE Material to Fight COVID-19 in US : April 2020

Dr. V. Vijay is both a cardiologist and pilot.

Practising Surgeon at The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City and trained Pilot with assignments at Sky Lease Cargo, Greensboro, North Carolina.

V. Vijay flies Boeing-747 cargo flights to cities in China, Japan and Malaysia to bring back PPE’s and essential medical supplies to the U.S to battle the Covid-19 pandemic.

Education :

  • MBBS – Sai Venkateswara Medical College, Tirupati

MD, FRCSC

  • General Surgical Training – Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City
  • Fellowship in Rheumatic Heart Valve & Pediatric Heart Surgery – Medical University of Southern Africa, MEDUNSA, Pretoria
  • Cardiothoracic Surgical Training – The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York

Firsts:

  • Surgical member of the Team that performed First live-related kidney transplantation in the Caribbean
  • First Fellow – Rachel Cooper Foundation for pediatric surgery at Babies Hospital, Columbia University and Montefiore Childrens Hospital, New York
  • First Artificial Heart Transplantation in Long Island, New York- 1999
  • Founder – Cardiac Transplantation – division of Winthrop University Hospital

Patents :

Several on cardio-pulmonary by-pass machines

Publications :

Several papers on cardio-pulmonary bypass machines

Indian-American Physicist Jagadeesh Moodera and MIT Team Discover Sighting of ‘Majorana Fermion’ – April 2020

Dr. Jagadeesh Subbaiah Moodera and his team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), discover the sighting of ‘Majorana Fermion’.

This sighting of Majorana Fermion are scalable and could be made in qubits. These qubits could be used to build the most powerful and error free quantum computers.

Married to Dr. Geetha Berera – Senior Lecturer – Department of Materials Science & Engineering, MIT

Currently :

  • MIT – Francis Bitter National Laboratory – Leader, ‘Thin Film Magnetism, Superconductivity and Nanospintronics Group
  • Visiting Professor – Technological University of Eindhoven – The Netherlands
  • Adjunct Professor – Suffolk Universtiy

Awards & Honours :

  • Oliver Buckley Prize in Condensed Matter Physics -from American Physical Society (APS) – (2009)
  • Fellow – American Physical Society (2000)
  • Coorg Person of the Year (2008)

Papers:

  • More than a dozen papers published internationally

Education:

  • Ph.d – Physics – Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)- Madras
  • M.Sc – Mysore University
  • B.Sc – Mysore University

Thalappil Pradeep Awarded ‘ Nikkei Asia’ Prize – April 2020

Professor T Pradeep, IIT-Madras wins the 25th Nikkei Asia Prize in the ‘Science & Technology’ category. Established by Nikkei Inc, Japan

Pradeep has done pioneering work in nano-technology based water purification.’

Developed world’s first filter for drinking water that incorporates deionising technology, established by him.

Awards:

  • Padma Shri – Government of India – 2020
  • Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize – by CSIR – 2008
  • World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in Chemistry – 2018

Papers :

  • Several papers presented worldwide

British Indian Ramesh Mehta – President of ‘British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO)

Dr. Ramesh Mehta FRCPCH, FRCP, MD, DCH – Consultant & Lead Paediatrician , Belford Hospital

President BAPIO / www.bapio.co.uk

Awards & Honours :

  • The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire – OBE – for exemplary service to the NHS spanning 30 years (2017)
  • National Clinical Excellence Awards
  • Top 50 BME Leaders in the NHS – Health Services Journal (HS) – 2013 and 2014
  • Honorary Fellowship, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health

Notes: There are over 65,000 doctors of Indian origin in the NHS

First Woman, Vice-Admiral, Indian Navy – Punita Arora

Surgeon Vice-Admiral Punita Arora, PVSM, SM, VSM

Also concurrently holds the First for –

First Woman in India to hold the 2nd highest rank in the Indian Army – Lieutenant-General Punita Arora.

Awarded : Param Vishish Seva (PVSM), Sena Medal and Vishist Seva Medal (VSM)